At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, California, he told reporters, "You don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows phone and you do to use an Android phone…It is hard for me to be excited about the Android phones.

Mr. Ballmer had kinder words for Apple, Inc. (AAPL), with which it hopes to via for second place in the market. Mr. Ballmer revealed he's a fan of Siri, the "humble personal assistant" found in the iPhone 4S. He comments, "Apple is a good competitor, but a different one. Both [an iPhone and a Windows phone] are going to feel very good in your hand and both going to look very beautiful physically…"

"But when you grab a Windows phone and use it… your information is front and centre… and you don’t have to scroll through seas of icons and blah blah blah. A Windows phone gets things done."

Despite his love for the iPhone, Mr. Ballmer says that Microsoft won't opt to follow in its footsteps and release first-party hardware. He comments, "We are [only] focused on enabling hardware innovation…We have been very successful enabling hardware innovation and will continue to do so."